The American Dream By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Because Gatsby is standing alone, searching for the elusive Daisy, he is shown to not be content. He finds no joy in having all these people here if he cannot find his Daisy. He views Daisy as the person that will bring him to an even higher social class, because even though he is rich, he still remembers the social value Daisy encompasses because of her abundance of lovers. Ultimately he wants to swell his ego, to tame the wild beast, because Daisy wasn’t settled down before with any one man. Even though she is now married, he still views her with the same awe of when he first laid eyes on her at camp, even remarking that “‘Her voice is full of money’”(127) in reference to his percieved value of her when they first met. Quintessentially, Gatsby has narcissism flowing through his veins because he is attempting to recreate a past to soothe his remorse from when he initially left Daisy to fight in the war.

Gatsby's strategies of winning back Daisy's heart are to show off his wealth and social status such as connecting himself with "Oxford"; living in a luxurious "mansion"(Pg 5), throwing lavish parties, dressed in nice expensive clothing; he even has "men in England who buy him clothes and sends him a selection"(Pg 92). Gatsby believes that with his money and material success he could buy anything in life including true love and happiness. Because of his obsession to obtain Daisy's love, he betrays his honesty and morality. With no other purposes in life, Gatsby ends up engaging in illegal activities. Therefore, it is very ironical that sometimes in life, good idealistic goal, somehow, is achieved by immoral and illegal means. This is the reason for the failure of the American Dream, and the tragedy of Gatsby.

      Gatsby's tragic flaw lies within his inability to see that the real and the ideal cannot coexist. Gatsby's ideal is Daisy. He sees her as perfect and worthy of all his affections and praise. In reality she is undeserving and through her actions, proves she is pathetic rather than honorable. When Daisy says "Sophisticated-God I'm sophisticated" (18), she contradicts who she really is. The reader sees irony here, knowing she is far from sophisticated, but superficial, selfish and pathetic. Gatsby's vision is based on his belief that the past can be repeated, "can't repeat the past? Why of course you can" (111)!  The disregard for reality is how Gatsby formulates his dream (with high expectations), and the belief that sufficient wealth can allow one to control his or her own fate. Gatsby believes youth and beauty can be recaptured if he can only make enough money. To become worthy of Daisy, Gatsby accumulates his wealth, so he can rewrite the past and Daisy will be his. He establishes an immense fortune to impress the great love of his life, Daisy, who can only be won with evidence of material success.  Over the five years in which Gatsby formulates this ideal, he envisions Daisy so perfect that he places her on a pedestal. As he attempts to make his ideal a reality things do not run as smoothly as he plans. Daisy can never live up to Gatsby's ideal, though

Gatsby makes it his life's mission to become rich, thinking this will be sure to win Daisy over. Daisy is married though, and his life's ambition of having Daisy fails. Gatsby surrenders his morals by breaking the law to earn the riches he thinks will buy her love but it is done for nothing, Daisy was not won over with his new wealth.

which allows him to fit into the society he wishes to be a part of. He

Gatsby is then reminded of his low status when Daisy’s mother“…had found her packing her bag one winter night to go to New York and say goodbye to a soldier who was going overseas. She was effectually prevented, but she wasn’t on speaking terms with her family for several weeks.” (75) From that moment Gatsby becomes motivated to become one of the wealthy elite in order to win Daisy and her family.

After the war, Gatsby’s only goal was to posses enough wealth to bring Daisy back. He acquired millions of dollars from businesses he did. “Gatsby bough this house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (78). His love for Daisy was the only thing that made him the man he was. He was intelligent, rich and even famous, all because of her. He threw big parties were many celebrities went and were thousands of dollars were spent in liquor and food just to call Daisy’s attention. “I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night…” (79), recalled Jordan, Gatsby’s friend, one night. All that Gatsby possessed was only and exclusively to show Daisy he could give her the life she wanted.

Gatsby has attempted to pull a facade of him having always been wealthy, thus allowing him to be part of Daisy's circle. Gatsby claims to have inherited his vast sum, hiding that he had actually self accumulated it over the years. By

The American Dream is steadily changing as time goes on and some say this is a bad thing. As different generations come about the dream changes with the people. As stated by Dan Kadlec in the article “Millennials Put Their Surprising Stamp on the American Dream” the American dream is now seen as having control over your daily life. Today 's generation has seen some of the main aspects of the original American Dream fail greatly so they have made up a new dream. With the things Millennials have seen change and go wrong they only believe that they can achieve a day to day lifestyle, but should this really be the case? In another article named “The Hourglass Society” it’s stated by Stewart Lansley that the middle class is going backwards. The idea of the ‘hourglass’ is that there are large amounts of people on the top and the bottom, but not many at all in the middle representing the middle class. This article also states that the American Dream is now only a myth and this generation only has a “fear of failing”. Many say the American Dream is dead but is the dream really dead or are people too afraid of failure? Millennials of today have seen so many bad things happen to their parents that they just settle and this shouldn’t be the case. The American Dream is only going to die if we let it happen.

James Madison stated “That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the art.” This means that if our American goal is to do something, we will not only do that task, we will be the best in the world at it. Also we went out west because we were encouraged to go west, not that we had to.This represents the path we took to settle the west. We went out west first to get the gold and then we would build railroad and then cities would emerge. The American dream is always changing for different people in different times. The American dream during this time period was to get control of all the land out west and unite it. We would be settling the west for many years but it shows our American Dream in settling the west was to make the west advanced as the east.

How would one feel if they spent their entire lives working towards an unattainable goal? That goal is the American Dream, a term that can be loosely defined as one’s attempt at what they believe is success, whether it be a family, high-paying career, a beautiful home, or all three. The American Dream can be whatever one makes of it. James Baldwin and William Buckley strongly debated this issue with underlying similarities but ultimately Baldwin had a stronger argument. This House Believes in the American Dream is at the Expense of the American Negro, was a historic 1965 debate about society’s mistreatment of the African American race throughout history. Baldwin highlighted that white Americans innately believe they are still superior to African Americans and their pursuit of the American Dream holds more weight while Buckley attempted to discredit him. Baldwin drew scrutiny to the social injustices faced by blacks in their daily lives especially in their pursuit of the American Dream and attempted to direct white America’s attention to the issues that desperately need a solution.

It was often said that every person strives to achieve the American Dream, this, however, was not true for F. Scott Fitzgerald. His approach was to tear down this dream and expose the falsifications of the dream to the people so they no longer strive for a dream they could not have. Despite Fitzgerald’s upbringing with a supportive and wealthy family living the American Dream, one of his most popular themes is illustrates his disdain for the upper class. This leads to lack of support and rejection from readers who wanted nothing more than this perfect American Dream. Fitzgerald is one of the few male writers, amidst the many women modernist writers, to go against the American culture and create his own original style and message.

The American Dream is the sole reason that millions of people decided to come to this country, whether it be generations ago, or last week. But even so, this shared dream faces problems. To solve the problem, the American Dream has to be defined. James Truslow Adams, author of the 1931 book The Epic of America, was the first person to mention and therefore define the American Dream. He established it as:

When people come to America, they come because the want to live the American dream. But what actually is the American dream? Does it truly exist? When one thinks of the American dream they instantly think of the Declaration of Independence because they too also believe that all men are created equal but also believe in the beauty of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. United States citizens as well as immigrants, believed in what the declaration had said and that it would push them closer to an experience of the American dream. Though people are excited to move towards a better life, they become a bit hesitant because they do not know exactly what the American dream is, nor do they know if all people are granted the same chance towards the American dream due to their age, race, their social status, traditions and any other factors. John Adams once stated that this American dream we speak of should give a better life to everyone but only according to their ability. To me this means that everyone deserves a better life but we cannot just give you everything, you have to show what you can do, and how far your American dream goes depends on you, your ability, and how hard you are willing to work. Though your American dream is based upon your ability being African American holds you back, though you have the ability to do great things you will not get the same opportunity due to race. Even today

The American Dream; a reality chased by Americans for centuries, based on the ideas of liberty, happiness and equal right to success for all. But, for F. Scott Fitzgerald the American Dream was a materialistic world of permanent riches and fortune. This distorted perception of the American Dream, shared by many others, resulted in the failure of the real American Dream, a reality where one can live comfortably and safely. Instead, the American Dream became this unattainable goal that can never result in satisfaction, as humans will always have that desire for more. F. Scott Fitzgerald clearly represents the failed American Dream, as he proved throughout his life of short periods of glamor which concluded in heartbreak, that the American Dream is nothing but an endless pursuit of an unattainable goal.